Rodi is located in an area inhabited since prehistoric (Palaeolithic and Neolithic) times.

According to early 19th-century historian Michelangelo Manicone,[6] its origins are connected to the Dauni ancient people, while, according to other version, it could have been founded by Greek colonists from Rhodes.

[7] Pliny the Elder mentions a Portus Garnae[8] which has been identified as the modern Rodi Garganico.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Rodi was destroyed by the Ostrogoths in 485 AD and rebuilt in 553 after the Gothic War.

Starting from the 16th century, it became one of the main centers for the production and trading of agrumes in southern Italy.